This was posted in the entry STAX thread, but I thought someone here might be curious too. Since Tyll received the custom electrostatic headphone amplifier, he's offering to measure electrostatic headphones. I sent in my SR-207 purchased last year and I just received them back today with a data sheet of measurements.

They look pretty much identical, if not better than the SR-507 measurements he did previously, so I'm not sure why anyone in their right mind would purchase the SR-507 over the SR-207 when the SR-207 is $535 USD less from STAX USA's pricing. Actually, looking at the SR-009 measurements, the SR-207 measures pretty close to that too. Not too bad for a $390 (that's 1/11 the price of the SR-009) headphone! Not bad at all. : oEdited by miceblue - 6/13/14 at 11:07pm

- Tubes can be finicky, and eventually burn out. I don't want to tube-roll. I don't want to buy NOS tubes from Russian missiles on eBay (again). I don't want to have to figure out what to replace them with, and where to get more, when they die. I don't want to diagnose a weird imbalance or noise in one ear when a tube gets flaky. I want an amp that works the same way every time.

- Tubes seem to pick up noise more easily, and I'm surrounded by computers and phones and tablets with cellular radios all the time. When I spent some time with a couple of tube amps at home, I had problems with my most sensitive and detailed headphones — the Beyer T90 — having audible noise from both tube amps that they didn't get with two solid-state amps in the exact same setup. And from what everyone says, the SR-009 are particularly sensitive and detailed.

Never had so many noise problems as with my KGSS and the 009.

It is so sensitive that even the flickering of the MacbookPro display or a Iphone/ipad nearby can be easily heard.

With the Stax Amps there will be no noise at all. Its going to be interesting how a BHSE will act. CANT WAIT(2 1/2 years now waiting) to find out!

The DAC is a ESOTERIC D02 and cabling the good stuff from Wireworld, so that could not be the source.

I have a very quiet surrounding which may a reason that i´m more sensitive in hearing than others. My Summit X Electrostatic Loudspeaker for example have a noise problem on the active sub amplification, very subtile, that most of the other Martin Logan Summit owners haven't recognized.

---The Martin Logan ReQuest Speaker with the same Amp, a Lyngdorf TDAI2200, did not have any noise.

This was posted in the entry STAX thread, but I thought someone here might be curious too. Since Tyll received the custom electrostatic headphone amplifier, he's offering to measure electrostatic headphones. I sent in my SR-207 purchased last year and I just received them back today with a data sheet of measurements.

They look pretty much identical, if not better than the SR-507 measurements he did previously, so I'm not sure why anyone in their right mind would purchase the SR-507 over the SR-207 when the SR-207 is $535 USD less from STAX USA's pricing. Actually, looking at the SR-009 measurements, the SR-207 measures pretty close to that too. Not too bad for a $390 (that's 1/11 the price of the SR-009) headphone! Not bad at all. :

Thanks for that miceblue; I said I didn't need to spend so much on "earwhatsits".

thanks, we had some conversation already. one known thing is the transformer which has to be changed to a sealed highquality version. Spritzer told me that he had some transformers that tend to generate a humm.

and nothing of the other equipment ever had a problem with interference noise.

This was posted in the entry STAX thread, but I thought someone here might be curious too. Since Tyll received the custom electrostatic headphone amplifier, he's offering to measure electrostatic headphones. I sent in my SR-207 purchased last year and I just received them back today with a data sheet of measurements.

They look pretty much identical, if not better than the SR-507 measurements he did previously, so I'm not sure why anyone in their right mind would purchase the SR-507 over the SR-207 when the SR-207 is $535 USD less from STAX USA's pricing. Actually, looking at the SR-009 measurements, the SR-207 measures pretty close to that too. Not too bad for a $390 (that's 1/11 the price of the SR-009) headphone! Not bad at all. : o

I am all for measurements but buyer beware. People measure what they can and I have seen virtually no studies showing that what is typically measured is what determines what we regard as good sound. That would be a lot more difficult scientific problem. If it had been solved we wouldn't be here spouting our subjective impressions, we would simply be discussing the latest data available.

I think that frequency responses can be useful, but can be misleading because of coupling issues and frequency response corrections applied to the raw data.

In the end you still have to listen and decide for yourself. Go to meets and concerts of live, unamplified music to establish your standards.

I am all for measurements but buyer beware. People measure what they can and I have seen virtually no studies showing that what is typically measured is what determines what we regard as good sound. That would be a lot more difficult scientific problem. If it had been solved we wouldn't be here spouting our subjective impressions, we would simply be discussing the latest data available.

I think that frequency responses can be useful, but can be misleading because of coupling issues and frequency response corrections applied to the raw data.

In the end you still have to listen and decide for yourself. Go to meets and concerts of live, unamplified music to establish your standards.

Let's assume we have the perfect methods for measuring headphones. Even then we couldn't just discuss the latest data, as our ears are not shaped in the exact same way. There's always that last human factor, so yes, in the end you still have to listen and decide for yourself - no matter how exact the measurements are.

One of the most important things is that big blob of grey matter between your ears. This no doubt has a much bigger impact on our opinion of the sound based on our perceptions, personal experience, how its been "wired" together etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AManAnd88Keys

Let's assume we have the perfect methods for measuring headphones. Even then we couldn't just discuss the latest data, as our ears are not shaped in the exact same way. There's always that last human factor, so yes, in the end you still have to listen and decide for yourself - no matter how exact the measurements are.

I partially disagree, or think that we should be a bit more accurate in this matter.

We initally process auditory stimuli in a very similar way, it's not like when I hear a high pitched noise you hear rumbling bass. The core of the problem are associations, memories and so on, on that I agree with you. It's not just "the brain", part of it is very reliable and accurate. The fun starts when memory (working, long term...) comes into play.

Oh man, please get to some top demo rooms of hi-fi shows. I just came back from one today, and there were some McIntosh 200k solid state systems which sounded
ok, hi-fi sounding but ok, a Linn system for 40K that sound flat, and there were some solid state systems at 20K that sounded really bad.

Then we heard some tube based systems in various room by Audio Note, Lampizator and some other Italian makes, and they were superb.
Plus the Audio Note system was hiked up really loud with 30 people nodding there heads, and that set up was 25K.

All the above were speaker systems with digital front ends.

Which room at the end of the day was full? It wasn't the solid state rooms....

That's not really useful evidence of anything, though. Tubes are nostalgic, romantic, and exotic. I'd always expect them to do well in non-blinded, subjective "tests", especially in a room full of high-end audio enthusiasts.